Saturday, April 5, 2014

Bob Thiel Glorifies HWA's Controversal Visits to World Leaders

In Bob Thiel's latest booklet he chooses to glorify HWA's visits to world leaders in order to make HWA appear to be a great man.
Herbert Armstrong also met personally with world leaders in Europe, North America, Africa, India, China, Japan, Philippines, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and elsewhere to give a witness of the gospel to the world (cf. Matthew 24:14). (Page 85-6.)
In fact at the time it was revealed that HWA said very little concerning the doctrines of Armstrongism when he met with these world leaders. In fact, HWA was embarrassed that he was the leader of a church and he established the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation in order to obscure his role as a church leader. Here is what HWA said.
One thing has been a serious handicap, and caused me and my touring team no little embarrassment. We have had to say that we represent either Ambassador College or Worldwide Church of God. I am regarded as an Ambassador for WORLD PEACE. But if I represent a CHURCH, immediately that shouts to them RELIGION.
Also HWA did not preach the (Armstrongite) gospel to these world leaders, as was seen ina previous post.
Actually, as John Tuit argued in Chapter 3 of The Truth Shall Set You Free, HWA never dared to preach the gospel to them [Israeli officials he visited] lest he offend his Israeli hosts. What is so great about a little playground [in Jerusalem which WCG through its foundation sponsored]? Many people do stuff like that all the time. Why is tithe money going to them and not to WCG members? How is the gospel being preached to the people in Jerusalem through this playground? Notice how the plaque cited above does not even mention WCG, Tuit lamented. The people of Jerusalem using this playground would have no idea that it was a [COG] church which funded it.
HWA's visits to world leaders was a major reason why there was so much heroic resistance against HWA's authoritarian rule within WCG in the 1970s as many WCG members could not understand why WCG's tithes were being spent on courting world leaders instead of using that money to serve WCG members and spreading the teachings of Armstrongism to the rest of the world.

1 comment:

  1. Jesus or church never seemed to embarrass Billy Graham. I'm convinced that it is the way you express and carry yourself that makes the difference in the way the world receives you. There was never any mystery or equivocation as to who Billy represented. People respected him because of that. Who, outside of ACOG insiders has even heard or or remembers HWA?

    BB

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